Team Fortress 2

[neuzd]

If we're going to try and play games among ourselves, I may try to get into this myself.
Despite having been there since Wolfenstein 3D, I suuuuuuuuuuuck at FPSs. If I'm not mistaken I had a few 1v1 with Spore on Nexuiz (before the bad things happened) and he can tell how bad I am.

I'll get to this again on the next days, if I manage to have the thing running.

[Kong Wen]

Yeah neuzd, I'm awful too. I often die 10x before I can kill anyone because I just run around shooting without any strategy or planning, don't know any maps, etc.

I do have a headset I can use if we're going to play this for real though.

[Spore]

Yeah neuzd, I'm awful too. I often die 10x before I can kill anyone because I just run around shooting without any strategy or planning, don't know any maps, etc.

I do have a headset I can use if we're going to play this for real though.

Remember TF2 is an objective based FPS, so killing is not necessarily the end goal during play. If you are trying to capture a control point, laying a line of sticky bombs as Demoman as deterrent or harassing enemy engineers so they cannot work on their sentries, or blowing back projectiles from your team as Pyro are all valuable plays. Killing is just another tool that facilitates completing an objective. For players just starting, it's common to start as a class that works well in conjunction with other players. This includes playing Medic, following your teammates and watching what they focus on and the decisions they make, or Engineer working at an area of interest learning about the other defensive roles and how players choose to attack defended positions. It''s a dense game, and more than a half a decade of updates made it even more so, but the enjoyment is there.

[Kong Wen]

Remember TF2 is an objective based FPS, so killing is not necessarily the end goal during play. If you are trying to capture a control point, laying a line of sticky bombs as Demoman as deterrent or harassing enemy engineers so they cannot work on their sentries, or blowing back projectiles from your team as Pyro are all valuable plays. Killing is just another tool that facilitates completing an objective. For players just starting, it's common to start as a class that works well in conjunction with other players. This includes playing Medic, following your teammates and watching what they focus on and the decisions they make, or Engineer working at an area of interest learning about the other defensive roles and how players choose to attack defended positions. It''s a dense game, and more than a half a decade of updates made it even more so, but the enjoyment is there.

I like objective-based team games. But, does the game not have a straight-up team deathmatch mode, where the objective is to reach a certain number of kills or to get the most kills within a time limit? I was just cycling through modes last night and didn't see anything that jumped out at me like that.

[Spore]

I like objective-based team games. But, does the game not have a straight-up team deathmatch mode, where the objective is to reach a certain number of kills or to get the most kills within a time limit? I was just cycling through modes last night and didn't see anything that jumped out at me like that.

No pure Deathmatch. However, there is a mode called arena which gives each player one life and involves eliminating the other team. It's pretty stressful though. A bit of Counter-Strike mixed in with TF2. There may be unofficial Deathmatch servers though. Go to the server browser (as opposed to the find a game by gamemode button) and see if you can find anything interesting by sorting by gametype. There are many dozens of user made gamemodes.

[Kong Wen]

No pure Deathmatch. However, there is a mode called arena which gives each player one life and involves eliminating the other team. It's pretty stressful though. A bit of Counter-Strike mixed in with TF2. There may be unofficial Deathmatch servers though. Go to the server browser (as opposed to the find a game by gamemode button) and see if you can find anything interesting by sorting by gametype. There are many dozens of user made gamemodes.

Ah yes, that sounds like CS or SOCOM or something like that. I got impatient with the respawn times as it was (10+ seconds!!!) so I don't know if that kind of game would be the best for me. As in every shooter I've ever played, I can land 10 direct hits on an enemy and not kill them, but I die instantly when an enemy even looks at me.

I didn't know the servers would have different games modes, rules, etc. I'll have to look into that this weekend.

[Kong Wen]

Alright, I've played with every class now. I'm still kind of confused about some things, such as:

What is this "rocket jump" and how is it done?
What is ubercharge and how is it done?
How do you build stuff with the Engineer / how is metal acquired?
How do you kill people with the Demoman?

I got voted out of one server "for cheating" even though I wasn't cheating. Very lame.

[Spore]

Rocket jumping involves looking straight down as Soldier, jumping and then immediately shooting a rocket. The blast propels you up and over. Use sparingly as you lose health with this maneuver.

Ubercharge is the primary export of the Medic. Once he has healed a sufficient amount of health in a single life (denoted by an Ubercharge meter on the HUD), the Medic can use alternate fire to make himself and his target invulnerable for a few seconds. This allows players to push a heavily defended region.

Build with Engineer by using the build PDA. It is one of his weapons. When you select this weapon a menu will come up giving you the option to build one of four buildings (sentry, dispenser, teleport entrance, teleport exit) press the corresponding button and then look at the ground and select where you want to place the building. Hit it with your wrench to build faster ans upgrade. Metal can be acquired by picking up any ammo source (dropped weapons, ammo boxes) or by standing next to a dispenser.

Demoman's primary purpose is trap laying and destroying enemy engineer buildings. Use the sticky bomb launcher to place a trap in an area the enemy will stumble into blindly (a corner is the easiest place). Alternate fire to blow your mines when they are near it. The pipe bomb launcher does high damage, but is very difficult to hit moving targets with.

To avoid strange server populations, start by playing on official Valve servers. The skill cap is relatively low and there is little pressure. The players also do not have the power to kick a player for "cheating" whatever that means. To find these servers, open up the server browser and sort by server name. Pick one that begins with the word "Valve". I recommend one of the Valve Attack Defend or Valve Payload (the word after Valve denotes the gamemode the server plays) servers to start. The Halloween servers are wacky, but are not a good way to learn how the game works. Remember that in games with server browsers you get to be in control of how good your connection is with it. Pick one with a decent latency (one of the right most columns in the browser) and a decent number of players on.

[Kong Wen]

Rocket jumping involves looking straight down as Soldier, jumping and then immediately shooting a rocket. The blast propels you up and over. Use sparingly as you lose health with this maneuver.

Probably won't be using that much for a while.

Ubercharge is the primary export of the Medic. Once he has healed a sufficient amount of health in a single life (denoted by an Ubercharge meter on the HUD), the Medic can use alternate fire to make himself and his target invulnerable for a few seconds. This allows players to push a heavily defended region.

Ah, so all you have to do is heal for a while. That's simple enough.

Build with Engineer by using the build PDA. It is one of his weapons. When you select this weapon a menu will come up giving you the option to build one of four buildings (sentry, dispenser, teleport entrance, teleport exit) press the corresponding button and then look at the ground and select where you want to place the building. Hit it with your wrench to build faster ans upgrade. Metal can be acquired by picking up any ammo source (dropped weapons, ammo boxes) or by standing next to a dispenser.

Hmm... controller support might make this command/weapon gimpy. I'll have to play around with it, but I didn't really see controller-buttons as options for choosing what to build. (That said, I've also never seen dropped weapons, ammo boxes, or dispensers...)

To avoid strange server populations, start by playing on official Valve servers. The skill cap is relatively low and there is little pressure. The players also do not have the power to kick a player for "cheating" whatever that means. To find these servers, open up the server browser and sort by server name. Pick one that begins with the word "Valve". I recommend one of the Valve Attack Defend or Valve Payload (the word after Valve denotes the gamemode the server plays) servers to start. The Halloween servers are wacky, but are not a good way to learn how the game works. Remember that in games with server browsers you get to be in control of how good your connection is with it. Pick one with a decent latency (one of the right most columns in the browser) and a decent number of players on.

I had figured I was on an official server because it was one of those Halloween event servers, but I guess maybe they're not all official. I'll probably keep dicking around with the Halloween ones for now just because I'm close to a couple achievements on them, but then move on to the traditional game.

[Spore]

Hmm... controller support might make this command/weapon gimpy. I'll have to play around with it, but I didn't really see controller-buttons as options for choosing what to build. (That said, I've also never seen dropped weapons, ammo boxes, or dispensers...)

Every time you or an enemy dies, their currently selected weapon will drop to the floor. This can be used as ammo for your guns and metal for your buildings.

Ammo box (this is one of two kinds of boxes):


Dispenser:

I had figured I was on an official server because it was one of those Halloween event servers, but I guess maybe they're not all official.

Valve places no limits on what kind of servers players are allowed to run. If a player runs their own server they are allowed to use holiday events or any other content Valve has created for the game. It's a very free ecosystem.